Vaqueros: The First Cowboys Who Made the Cattle Drives Successful

When Spanish settlers arrived in New Spain – later Mexico and the American Southwest – they brought with them the tradition of the Vaquero, a horse-mounted livestock herder that originated on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. As American settlers moved west, they adopted the methods of the Vaqueros for managing large herds of cattle. In the 1800s, demand for beef grew and the cattle industry boomed. Massive cattle drives to railheads in towns like Sedalia, Missouri, Abilene, and Dodge City, Kansas required the unique skills of the Vaquero tradition. Wranglers of Hispanic, Black, American Indian and White cowboys made the cattle industry of the mid-West a profitable enterprise. Eventually, much of the meat processing to place in Kansas City, Kansas, and the West Bottoms in Missouri. This presentation highlights the Vaquero culture, including the development of the corrido, a form of ballad popular among cowboys.